Cadbury wins trademark battle over the colour purple

BIRMINGHAM chocolate giant Cadbury has shaded victory in a High Court dispute with rival Nestle about its famous purple packaging.

BIRMINGHAM chocolate giant Cadbury has shaded victory in a High Court dispute with rival Nestle about its famous purple packaging.

Judge Colin Birss yesterday dismissed the main part of an appeal by Nestle after Cadbury successfully applied to register the colour purple “as a trade mark for chocolate”.

But he toned down the wording of the “specification of goods” registered, after concluding that Cadbury’s purple trade mark should only apply to packaging for some types of milk chocolate and drinking chocolate.

The court heard Cadbury applied to register purple – “Pantone 2685C” – as a trademark for chocolate in 2004 and the application was accepted in 2008.

Nestle objected but a representative of the registrar of trade marks ruled in favour of Cadbury after hearing legal argument.

He decided the “specification of goods” for which the purple Cadbury’s trade mark would be registered was: chocolate in bar and tablet form; chocolate for eating; drinking chocolate; preparations for making drinking chocolate.

Nestle then appealed to the High Court, arguing the purple trade mark was “not a sign capable of being represented graphically” and as such was not “registerable as a trade mark”.

Judge Birss yesterday dismissed Nestle’s primary case after concluding: “Since on the evidence the public associates the colour purple itself with Cadbury’s chocolate, Cadbury is entitled to a registered trade mark for that colour on the relevant goods.”

But he said Cadbury had not “drawn my attention” to evidence to support a finding of distinctiveness wider than for milk chocolate.

And he concluded the initial specification of goods had been too broad.